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Watering Hole – June 27, 2011 – Teach Our Children Well

~Chief Seattle
You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children that we have taught our children that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

Chief Seattle would be unhappy with my morning mail from Defenders of Wildlife which reads, in part:

First it was wolves in the Northern Rockies, now some Members of Congress are targeting protections for polar bears and virtually all other wildlife threatened and endangered wildlife as extremists set their sights on the Endangered Species Act.

For nearly four decades, the Endangered Species Act has protected wildlife on the edge of survival. Without it, Mexican wolves would be extinct in the wild, bald eagles would be gone in the lower 48 states and sea turtles would have already dwindled from our shores.

But powerful special interests and extremists in Congress have launched a sneak attack on this landmark law — and the more than 1,000 species it protects.
Earlier this year, Congress stripped protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies — the first time a species has been delisted through legislation. It’s opened the doors for one of the biggest assaults on the Endangered Species Act in years.

These sneak attacks are funded by some of the most powerful special interests — Big Oil, Big Ag and others — and they won’t stop until this vital law is gutted to oblivion.

What values are we teaching?

Republican “values”, i.e. ALL that counts in this life is money and power. Oh, and fuck the earth. It was put here by god for one reason and one reason only: for men to use as they accumulate money and power. Says so in the bi-bull.

Seattle, now rolling in his grave, also said:

“The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, but how can you buy or sell the sky, the land? The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected, like the blood that unites us all. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself. . .

And Seattle wasn’t alone in his wisdom:

“Their [Navajo, the Dineh] concept of … man’s relation to the world around him and his place in the order of things, is directly opposed to that of Anglo-American society. The Navajo’s concept of religion is so total that it can be said that there is no such thing as religion in Navajo culture because everything is religious. Everything a Navajo knows – his shelter, his fields, his livestock, the sky above him and the ground upon which he walks – is holy. The Navajos for the most part, have long resisted Christianity. They look upon it as a “part-time” religion where a man’s god is available to him for only a few hours on Sunday and then has to be sought out in a special house where his spirit dwells. From the beginning, the Navajos were repulsed by the European’s disrespect for and misuse of the land, for the land is the Earth Mother, she who gives life to humanity. A society that would destroy the source of life and worship an abstract god in a place set aside for that purpose has, historically, had little to offer the Navajo. For there is nothing more revered nor more loved by the Navajos than the land they call Dinetah.” Raymond Friday Locke, in The Book of the Navajo; Mankind Publishing, Los Angeles; 6th ed., 2001

“We didn’t inherit this world from our ancestors; we borrowed it from our children.” ~Lakota Proverb

“Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library . . .” ~Chief Luther Standing Bear

[to the Lakota] “The animals had rights — the right of man’s protection, the right to live, the right to multiply, the right to freedom, and the right to man’s indebtedness — and in recognition of these rights the Lakota never enslaved an animal, and spared all life that was not needed for food and clothing. This concept of life and its relations was humanizing, and gave to the Lakota an abiding love. … The Lakota could despise no creature, for all were of one blood …” ~Chief Luther Standing Bear

“We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy — and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his fathers’ graves, and his children’s birthright is forgotten.” ~Chief Seattle, Suqwamish and Duwamish

Thanks for those excellent quotes Frugal! The Native Americans were the perfect dwellers of this country. How sad to think what we’ve done to these people through out our history.

We stole their lands, we slaughtered their men, women and children, we slaughtered their food source, the Buffalo, for sport and for their hides.

I will never forget that scene in “Dances With Wolves” where the Costner character leads his adopted Lakota family on a Buffalo hunt only to find the rotting remains of thousands of skinned Buffalo littering the Plains. Such a waste.

Thank you frugal for these quotes. I keep fighting with my father in law about his concept of “Man inherited the Earth”. I keep telling him, he needs Nature, but Nature doesn’t need him (or me for that matter). We are all tiny parts in a wonderful world and we should cherish and protect creation, not destroy it. With our intellect and knowledge we don’t even begin to understand the complexity of things and the greatest wisdom for me is in Socrates’ words scio nescio. I know that I don’t know.

The depiction of Native Americans as conservationists is only part of the story. The nomadic hunter-gatherers, as opposed to the many peoples who practiced some kind of sedentary farming, did far less damage than so-called “civilized” humans but it wasn’t all good. The pattern with most nomadic hunter-gatherers is that they inhabit a region until it becomes too depleted to support the population and then they move on to an area that has recovered from previous exploitation.

The native farmers did much the same thing as modern farmers but on a smaller scale and with a bit more holistic approach, planting grains and vegetables amongst fruit and nut trees is one example,. Again, they did far less damage than we Europeans have done but they still manipulated the environment to suit their crops.

Holding a romantic image of a people, for good or ill, does a bit of a disservice. The native peoples of the Americas were incredibly diverse and ranged from pacifist farmers through the whole spectrum to bands that subsisted solely by war and raiding. It is as inaccurate to say that they all lived in a perfect symbiosis with their environment than it is to say, as some guy who’s name escapes me said, they would live in an area until the woods were empty and the latrines were full.

Here’s an article about Zurich fro the New York Times. It is accurate and Limmatquai the newly pedestrianized road is close to where I work. I love being more important than cars. Read the comments as well one of the critters will surely love some of those.

Thanks to Cats and Frugal for giving me much to think about today. I may thus far have totally failed to teach my child algebra, but I am determined that I will teach him to respect the land and all that dwells in it.

I did just that with my daughter, Outstanding. When she was young, there were lots of camping trips in the mountains, on the desert, and even in our backyard. In the wilds we met skunks, racoons, a coyote or two, listened to Mexican wolves howl, were visited one night by a bear; in the backyard we were awakened every morning either by a mockingbird we named Marvin or by the early-rising covey of quail that roosted, at night during the winter, in our tangerine tree. It worked. Today her dream is to become a veterinarian, thanks to her love of all animals. I have no doubt she’ll succeed and make her corner of the world a better place for all of life.

Chief Seattle: “The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, but how can you buy or sell the sky, the land?
—————————————————
With beliefs like this it’s no wonder the white man slaughtered and destroyed the native tribes and their ways. A wealthy, powerful man from the East Coast cannot buy large parcels of land…how preposterous. *snark*

One of the biggest myths ever told to we the people is that we can be land owners. In reality we don’t own the land, we rent it from the government who tells us what we can or cannot do on our land and if we don’t pay our property taxes to the government then what happens to this land we are told we own?

And you wonder why the wealthy have been sitting on all of their profits. Perhaps it is because they so desperately want to defeat the Black, Islamic, socialist?

I am seriously starting to get very nervous about the 2012 elections. We already know the republicans are 100 times better at getting their message out, controlling the message and always being on the attack while Obama and the democratic party seem to always be on the defense.

Could it be that all of these corporations who have been sitting on record profits are doing so not only to keep unemployment high, the economy down, which hurts Obama but to also use to pump into the elections in the form of campaign ads against Obama and the democrats and for the corporate friendly republican candidates out there?

I’ve had a long term and abiding interest in collecting quotes that genuinely make a point, particularly in re nature, the earth, and human’s relationship thereto. Here are a few more of what I consider to be ‘goodies':

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods —
There is a rapture on the lonely shore —
There is society where none intrudes —
By the deep sea and music in its roar —
I love not man the less but nature more —
From those our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, of have been before —
To mingle with the universe and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot conceal.”
~Lord Byron

“Wilderness. The Word itself is music. Wilderness, wilderness . . . We scarcely know what we mean by the term, though the sound of it draws all whose nerves and emotions have not yet been irreparably stunned, deadened, numbed by the caterwauling of commerce, the sweating scramble for profit and domination. … [for] the love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need — if only we had the eyes to see. Original sin, the true original sin, is the blind destruction for the sake of greed of this natural paradise which lies all around us — if only we were worthy of it.” ~Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire, A Season in the Wilderness; 1968

“Nature can provide for the needs of people; [she] can’t provide for the greed of people.” ~Mohandas K. Gandhi

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you…
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”
~John Muir

“We have doomed the wolf not for what it is but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be: the mythologized epitome of a savage, ruthless killer — which is, in reality, no more than the reflected image of ourself.” ~Farley Mowat

“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings, they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.” ~Renée Askins in Shadow Mountain – A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild; Anchor Books, ISBN 0-385-48226-4

“Civilization has been thrust upon me … and it has not added one whit to my love for truth, honesty, and generosity….” ~Chief Luther Standing Bear

And finally, a most able summary of the Republican view of environmental reality:

“Instead of evaluating how oil companies could harm the environment, the administration has ordered federal land managers nationwide to do exactly the opposite: consider how the environment could harm oil companies.” –Daniel Glick in “Where the Caribou Don’t Roam (Anymore)”; Salon.com, 11-01-04

And then James Madison discusses the pitfalls of soveriegn debt and who will call the shots “if the deferred debt should be immediately provided for in favor of the purchasers of it in the deferred shape, & since the unanimous vote that no change shd. be made in the funding system, my imagination will not attempt to set bounds to the daring depravity of the times. The stockjobbers will become the praetorian band of the government—at once its tool & its tyrant; bribed by its largesses, & overawing it by clamours and combinations… ."

And the Economist's opinion piece by Lexington lays out the founding fathers' position on inherited wealth.

clolse – a quote mark open between the ‘shots’ and the ‘if’ :) Thx Zoo.

Madison is saying that soveriegn debt is a means to enslavement by the debtors – essentially, the only way out is to debase the currency – mix nickel in with the silver – it’s what kings and dictators have done since the coin was invented…. its the easiest way to f*** the populace. They call it ‘growth’ these days.

We have a new feature at the Zoo! We’re going to a Facebook only commenting system!

No, not really. :lol:

If you’ll take a look at the ride side margin, just under Gnu Horizons and Zoo News, you’ll see a new link for Guest Blogging on the Zoo — in case you just have so very much to say that it won’t fit into one comment. :)

Check out the Guest Blogging Rules at the bottom of our About page. They’re not too stringent, of course, cuz this is the Zoo.

If you decide to send something in to the guest blogging link, do put a comment on the open thread so we’ll know to look for it!

What’s next? Assassination of elected officials (as opposed to appointed officials, of course) is also ‘protected speech’?

What’s the difference, btw, between ‘violent video games’ and pornography? Porn is seldom violent and therefore is not ‘protected speech’?

Corporate political contributions and violent video games are now ‘protected speech,’ both categories approved as such by SCOTUS ruling. And the latest was a 7-2 ruling with only Thomas and Breyer dissenting.

Yes. All wimmin should be ashamed. Some apparently are, actually. As for me, I’ve long wondered why god made such icky stuff to be so . . . umm . . . intriguing. Is that the word? Trying to coax me into a mortal sin, yes? Just one more player in that cosmic amuse-the-gods video game!

“Protected speech.” Now I think I get it. Took awhile. Thanks, SCOTUS.

Not in Oregon. The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that naked dancers are covered by our freedom of speech amendment. This has made it difficult for any cities to implement NIOBY rules, including proximity to schools.

Which helps explain why Oregon, and especially Portland, have more strip clubs per capita than any other area.

NOMAD got caught in a logic loop and Batscat Bachmann is highly deficient in logic. I would prefer Kirk’s approach to the being in “The Final Frontier” when he asked “why does God need a star ship”? Whenever any fundamentalist claims to be “part of God’s army”, “fighting for God”, or even “doing God’s work”; they should be asked why God would need a puny human to do anything. The only possible responses to such a question would be to evade the question or say something truly insane.

The Jefferson quote is a keeper, especially since the Tea Bagots quote him (selectively) at every opportunity. It might have been a surprise to the Founding Fathers, but it appears that Jefferson speaks for all of them.

Their selective understanding, and willful ignorance (stupidity), is frustrating beyond words. I am quite sure that the teabaggers have never read, much less understood, either the Bible or Constitution. They are certainly ignorant of the other works of Jefferson or any of the other, to use a modern term, progressives who established the foundations of this country.

Mexico pressuring England for a bit, England push back with a counter attack but a clever through-ball has a bit too much pace on it . Now Mex coming back with a free kick but its wasted. Both sides keen to score again before this half is over.

I think the plant that’s unique to the Sonoran Desert, the Saguaro cactus (Cereus giganteus) will be one of the next to fail. Prior to 2008, we watched them fall like flies in what was once a lush Sonoran environment on the western margin of Metro Phoenix. There is subtle indication, a.i.r., that climate change and shifting weather patterns are grossly unkind to indigenous desert “fragilities” — no matter how tall, how ancient, they are.

Half time. Lively game. No disrespect intended but I get the impression that the wonen’s game, by this example has been stepped-up, it really look’s very much like the men’s game now, especially impressive as these women all have ordinary jobs. It’s the shots and headers I think—they are strong and from range, which didn’t seem to be the case in earlier world cups, the passing seems more coordinated.

I totally agree 5th. The passing in the Germany Canada game was the best I’ve seen in the woman’s game. I recall in the last world cup that there were many many missed passes. They are definitely getting better. They also attack the ball carrier with a lot of energy. I think that is because the pressure induces more errant passes. As they get better at passing, the pressure as to be placed with more awareness. I only watched the Germany Canada game but if that is an indicator, the world cup will be very entertaining.

Another little data point that would seem to indicate that Greta’s unusuall appearance is the result of having her face reconstructed after beatings. Like many Reich-wing women she seems to display a lot of behaviors that are consistent with abusive relationships.

Heh! Could you imagine Greta’s response if her BFF, Bible Spice, alleged some guy had chocked her?

Don’t forget, though, the Wilderness Act of 1964, written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society and signed into law in September ’64 by LBJ. It preserved monumental acreages to which many more have been added since. It will take the GOP at least another decade or two to fully dismantle the Wilderness Act and turn the 100 million protected acres over to the oil and gas industries. And ranching. And developers. And logging. And … etc.

Joshua Treviño, a former Bush administration speechwriter and vice president for communications at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, tweeted an offensive note to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Saturday. “Dear IDF,” he wrote, “If you end up shooting any Americans on the new Gaza flotilla — well, most Americans are cool with that. Including me.”

There are so many things to take from this article. Perhaps the foremost is that health care is a vocation to the vast majority of those who are in the field. One runs into a few for whom it’s just a job but they’re a tiny minority.

What’s missing is the circumstances of this event. If this hospital is anything like the ones I’ve been in I would be willing to bet that the nurse was overwhelmed. Too many patients on the ward. Too long a day. Too many days straight without a break. These things should all be considered. I’ve spent enough time in hospitals to know that most nurses, and resident doctors, are flat-out overworked. Fatigue and stress cause mistakes.

I had an experience with just that. I was dehydrated and my potassium level was down so the doctor ordered it added to my IV. The first bag was pumped into the saline/glucose over 5 hours and mixed with a little Lidocaine to quell the burning associated with straight potassium. The second bag was administered by the same nurse, who had been working 6 hours when she hung the first bag, and was accompanied by an order to step up the rate of flow. Unfortunately, she made a mistake and ran the potassium straight into my vein rather than through the saline IV. She realized what had happened when I woke up screaming. The event wasn’t life-threatening but it was highly unpleasant. Potassium is caustic and it felt like my arm was on fire from the inside out. I also still have little lumps under my skin where the valves in my veins were scarred.

It’s the inevitable result of for profit health care. The bean counters will operate with the minimum, or less, staff. They will treat nurses, with very different skill levels, as interchangeable parts. They will try to get the most overtime out of the youngest, lowest paid, and least qualified. And the most qualified will be doing double duty training rookies and covering for said rookies’ lesser performance.

OOOH! Great maneuvering by Kelly Smith from mid field, through ball to the left, cross to the goal, bit of a scramble, ball bounces the wrong way for Eng.—sooo close!

There’s just really good development of attack by both sides, individual skills plus team work, no boring long balls bouncing ineffectually in the midfield, ball being moved around very well. Attack and counter attack in equal measure with smart through-balls.

The Brits treat soccer differently from everything else–they are really bipolar about it and its so unnecessary. I;ve never heard of the English team being a serious contender in the WC before, and what I saw today shows how good they’ve become. They should be encouraged, not torn down. (I should find the team site and e-mail them!).
I hope the Mexicans aren’t getting the same crap–they played really well too,

Speaking of Lidocaine, and in the interest of full disclosure, I’m pretty highly medicated today. I haven’t been able to find a dentist who will treat my broken tooth before my usual dentist can squeeze me in on Wednesday. I’ve never needed emergency dental care before and it’s a real bitch! The part that really pisses me off is that by the time I got back to my dentist’s office after looking around for one who would treat me on an emergency basis and accepts Medicare coverage, my, soon to be former, dentist had left for the day!

Thankfully, my MD prescribed painkillers and some industrial strength Orajel derivative. I’ve also been playing around with home remedies. The best I have found so far is ice and peppermint schnaps. It only takes about a teaspoon of schnaps and a medium sized chunk of ice. The first few seconds are like having the tooth turned into white hot steel but, once the schnaps hit’s the nerve, it numbs me up for a couple hours. I even managed about four hours of sleep last night.

So, If I go all goofy and/or start making all kinds of typos? I have good reason.

You broke a tooth and your dentist isn’t doing anything for you? Gosh. I feel lucky that mine comes in on her day off sometime when I have tooth issues… but then again, she’s gotten a lot of money from me over the years….

Thanks. Actually, my home remedies have worked fairly well. I even managed to get in a few hours sleep before everything wore off at once early this morning. For awhile I was ready to go after it with a pair of pliers or find a bus to jump in front of. (NOTE: I have no intention of jumping in front of a bus but i sometimes say things like that when I’m frustrated and hurting. That’s why I haven’t just gone to the ER because I don’t want to blurt something out that will relegate me to the psyche ward.)

My current dentist will not be for much longer. The problem that I’ve run up against is that I have yet to find an urgent care dentist who bills Medicare. I did suspend the search when my MD gave me a prescription by phone. (NOTE: It’s probably best that I didn’t consider that option earlier or I may have abused the privilege.).

Right at this moment I’m feeling… feeling… feeling almost nothing and I’m only an hour away from my next pill. Since I also have a fairly high pain threshold I think I’ll make it (assuming I can vent when I get a twinge). There are also a whole lot of dentists I haven’t checked yet but I will. The first one who will see me before Wednesday will get my business.

I’ve always been lucky with my dentist. He’s always squeezed me in as soon as I called him, and since I don’t have dental insurance, he’s careful about running up costs and usually give me a nice discount. Even then, it’s fucking expensive.

I think it was summed up best by someone on the Zoo last week – if Bristol was really date-raped by the gorilla from wasilla in the woods, why then the lovey-dovey – ‘we’re getting married’ bullshit we were treated to in 2008?

The total silence from the Levi Johnston camp. I’ve heard he has his own book coming out soon, and I wonder if the whole matter will be cleared up at that point — to the detriment of Palin the Younger.

I’m a bit of an old-fashioned gentleman. I treat all women as ladies until and unless they prove they are not, in fact, ladies. Sometimes I treat them as ladies even then.

Bristol Palin ain’t no lady. She’s a petty little gutter-snipe like her mother. This whole “he didn’t rape me but (wink) he stole my cherry” is beyond disgusting. A lady, or even a half-sane woman, would either file a complaint or STFU.

As this is only her third presidential announcement, it raises more questions that it answers, such as, Is Michele Bachmann running for President? Because if she is, why doesn’t she just come out and say so 12 more times? She’s such a tease! ;

O.K. She knows how to pronounce “Iowa”. As someone else pointed out; it’s a little disturbing that she claims to have learned everything she needed to know in Iowa because she moved out of Iowa when she was 12. But? The most disturbing part is that she seemed compelled to include “Iowa” in every sentence. At least she seems to be denying her residence in Minnesota and that pleases me to no end. Our ignorant hicks don’t like it when a native son or daughter rejects their Minnesota connections. Of course, Crazy Shelly is fully capable of claiming common roots in front of any crowd. The whole damned movement is from Dumbphuckistan.

She is. I’ve followed her career here in Minnesota since she first hit the local news for getting her charter school closed by installing a religious curriculum. She’s more dangerous than Palin because she can, at least, speak English in complete sentences. She’s more dangerous because she’s more crazy than stupid. She’s more dangerous because she isn’t lazy.

I forget the source but the best description I’ve heard went something like; “she’s the candidate that the teabaggers tried to turn Palin into”.

Marion “John Wayne” Morrison was born in WINTERSET Iowa, not Waterloo. There is, in fact (or was, last time I passed through) a large sign on the Winterset city limits that proclaimed such to all passers.

Batshit is truly Batshit. Of course, what to expect from one who said that the American Revolution started in New Hampshire?

The charges were related to accusations that Blagojevich had tried to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat in 2008, after it was vacated by Obama when he was elected President. Blagojevich pleaded not guilty to all counts of wire fraud, racketeering, bribery, and attempted extortion.

We’re on it already, gummitch. I wonder if Crazy Shelly’s worshipers will edit John Wayne’s Wiki page to reflect her own personal interpretation of history in the way that they have turned Paul Revere into a traitor in an effort to protect Bible Spice..

The whiplash of Citizen’s United cracks again…
from MSNBC By Pete Williams ~
Handing out the final decisions of the current term, the Supreme Court issued two — one of which is related to politics.
It invalidated, by a 5-4 vote, a 1998 Arizona law that gave a financial boost to publicly funded candidates if their privately funded opponents spent more money….
The system was challenged on First Amendment grounds by several privately funded candidates, who claimed that they reined in their spending to avoid triggering the matching funds for their publicly funded opponents. The law, they argued, acted as a restraint on their campaigns and thus violated their free-speech rights.
.
Speech is money, chex for free.

Palin is stupid – she is a grifter who is media savvy enough to make a fortune.
Bachmann is not stupid – she is a politically savvy demagogue, a flamethrowing, radial politician who knows more about how to game the system than she knows about the reality of governance.
She has come a long way since she positioned herself to hang on Bush’s shoulder at a STOU address and therefore be in all the camera shots.
Her outrageous personal claims against Obama gained her more notoriety, then her rebuttal to the SOTU address by Obama (even with the goofy camera angle), her embrace of the Teaparty and its extreme agenda — all this is political calculation. She knows what she’s doing — it is deliberate — and she is the candidate to beat for the nomination.

Which may be why Wallace asked her if she’s a flake, which was a professionally and rhetorically pointless question that I suspect was Wallace’s personal concern.
He took her to task over some of her insane statements and contradictory positions –it was not a friendly interview at all.
Wallace would represent at least the pragmatic Republicans, the ones who understand a provocateur’s uses but not as a national candidate–despite Bachmann being more…ummm….disciplined than Palin, they have Palin as a cautionary example.
Having elevated the cult of personality with Palin they have set the stage for Bachmann who for example, has yet to produce a single piece of legislation that hasn’t been an utter waste of everyone’s time. Everyone else on the GOP ticket at the moment is underwhelming.
The teabaggers bullied through their candidates at the state level, now there’s a backlash. The Teabaggers have the energy the GOP needs, but it’s maniacal: crazy versus craven appears to be the choice—it’s not a good one..

Another data point. Batscat Bachmann (InsaneR-Mn.) proves, again, that she is fundamentally incapable of being 100% truthful. The sad and scary part is that her certainty, born of her religious fundamentalism, results in the very real possibility that she doesn’t realize it. It is nice, however, to see Bobby display a little tenacity. It would be nice to hear him say, “you’re lying again”, but I’ll take what we get; sat this point.

Dear Mr. President,
This is a pivotal moment in the history of our country. Decisions are being made about the national budget that will impact the lives of virtually every American for decades to come. As we address the issue of deficit reduction we must not ignore the painful economic reality of today – which is that the wealthiest people in our country and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well while the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing. In fact, the United States today has, by far, the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth.

Everyone understands that over the long-term we have got to reduce the deficit – a deficit that was caused mainly by Wall Street greed, tax breaks for the rich, two wars, and a prescription drug program written by the drug and insurance companies. It is absolutely imperative, however, that as we go forward with deficit reduction we completely reject the Republican approach that demands savage cuts in desperately-needed programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, our children and the poor, while not asking the wealthiest among us to contribute one penny.

Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share. At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions. A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending.

Please do not yield to outrageous Republican demands that would greatly increase suffering for the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society. Now is the time to stand with the tens of millions of Americans who are struggling to survive economically, not with the millionaires and billionaires who have never had it so good.
Respectfully,

Ya Know? It’s easy to forget that their are good people in office. We tend to berate them for failing to get the message out but the fact is that corporate tools decide which messages are disseminated. The more that I think about it the more I think that the real battles need to be fought against the editorial boards of our “news” sources.

If you see an op-ed that’s BS? Send a letter to the editor. If you see a film crew? Shout your message at the top of your lungs. And, if you see a politician lying? Tell everyone you can.

I may have to cut Lushbo a little slack. This is the first time I’ve taken Oxycontin and I must admit it’s a pretty enjoyable experience. I also found a dentist that will see me tomorrow morning but, at the moment, I can’t tell if I have teeth unless I stick a finger in my mouth.

I have spent enough time around good people who aren’t as liberally educated as me that I have several layers of scare tissue along the sides of my tongue. Actually, I can feel my tongue but the tooth pain is gone. The rest of my body feels freakin’ fantastic!

Pete, that oxycontin shit is addicting. Pain is pleasant in comparison. Believe me, I know; my older daughter who suffers from fibro myalgia has been on oxycontin for several years, and I can tell you horror stories. Stay away from it. As far away from it as you can manage. Seriously.

Thanks for the warning but I’m not too worried. Even if I’m miserly with it, which i’m not, i only have enough to last through Wednesday. I’ll switch to something else if I need painkillers past then. I also have a topical painkiller that’s very effective. I shred my prescription bags and have forgotten the name and the writing on the tube is too small for my old eyes. Lidocaine? Benzocaine? Procaine? All I remember is that it’s one of the “caines” that doesn’t start with “coc”.

I have flirted with substance abuse and I’m pretty careful. All kidding aside, I’ve been very open with my doctor about my substance use and he hesitated to give me the Oxy, or any painkiller, until I called him a couple bad names just to convey the gravity of the situation. I’m not usually a big pill fan but necessity has called for drastic measures. And? Since it works, I’m going to have fun with it even though I feel like I’m typing with mittens.

On medical mistakes…our local hospital is screamingly incompetent and understaffed. I offer three examples that happened years apart:
1987: Son admitted for emergency appendectomy. All is well until son wakes up in his hospital room in pain. I report it to nurse, who discovers that no pain meds were delivered for him and the pharmacist must be called in to fill what the doctor ordered. It takes four long and excruciating hours.
2000: Another son falls on his head doing some snowboarding trick. Have him x-rayed, all is well. The next few days at work he complains that he can’t hold his tools and his arms don’t work right. Four days after the injury, the hospital calls and asks us to come back in, whereupon they strap son to backboard and take him to the university hospital by ambulance. Someone looked at the x-ray again, his neck was broken. It was later reported in our local paper that a woman actually died after they missed her broken neck.
2011: Mom goes to her lung doctor who takes one look at her sats and sends her to the emergency room. Emergency room doctor takes history, drug list, and admits her to the hospital. At 10:00PM the hospital physician that one is required to use while in the hospital calls me to ask why she is in the hospital. I explain as best I can and ask why the ER doc didn’t write all the info in the chart. This moron explains that he just came on shift and hadn’t looked at her chart. I guess it made more sense to call some farmer rather than actually use whatever medical training he may have possessed.
I know there are many wonderful caring people in health care. Few of them live in my town. I don’t get any of my medical care here.
I realize this is apropos of nothing, but I feel better for having written it.

I still think that the biggest problem with health care in this country is the profit motive. I’ve spent way too much time in hospitals and, over and above the incident I talked about earlier, i can recall countless incidents where I’ve seen people, who were just plain overworked and overstressed, make mistakes. Just like any profession; there are careless and incompetent people in the health care industry but I still tend to think that the system is the biggest problem.

Another case in point:

My dear friend, Chuck, recently lost his lower leg to MRSA.. He caught it after a relatively minor surgery. This happened in a civilian hospital, even though his insurance was through the VA, and he didn’t get effective treatment until he was transferred to a VA hospital. The really disturbing part, to me, was that he wasn’t even isolated during the early stages even though they knew what the problem was. Every person who went in that room should have been following haz-mat procedures but there were none. At one point he was even moved to a non-private room and his roommate was recovering from surgery with nothing between him and Chuck’s germs but a curtain.

Between: budget measures, the production line approach to medicine, and our overuse of antibiotics; as many as half of all surgeries result in a post op infection. That’s uncomfortably close to the rate before sterile practices were discovered. The worst part is that many of them are all but untreatable due to drug resistance. We have eliminated some prudent measures to save on the costs of laundry and plastic gloves concurrent with creating ‘super bugs”.

My husband had encephalitis a few years ago. While they were unsure of the variety he was placed in isolation and I had to wears coveralls, mask, etc. In the corner of his room was an ordinary trashcan with a red plastic bag lining it. On the list of items that could be placed in the trashcan was “Ebola virus”. I would want way more between myself and ebola than a yellow paper suit and a red plastic bag.
I hope your friend is recovering.

Chuck’s doing pretty well. They seem to have gotten rid of the infection (though one doesn’t know if it may pop up again in the next few years) and he just got his new leg last week. He has managed a bit of hopping around with a walker, and even tooled around in his car a bit, but he’s still not comfortable and it’s a trial and error process to get to the final fit. He has joked that, should he need to stick his foot up a doctor’s ass, he can just order a new one.

Fuck McConnell, fuck the teabaggers, fuck the GOP. If their honest wish is to destroy the United States in pursuit of their lunacy, I say let them do it. Stand firm, Democrats and people with sense. Maybe someone will be left to pick up the pieces and rebuild a new and fresh progressive country with NO conservatives, no loons, in any seat of power or position.

I’ve had it with the fear, with the idiocy. If I fucking die for lack of Medicare, of Social Security, that’s no big deal. I’m gonna croak someday anyway. But one favor: I want to spit in McConnell’s face on my way out. Bring him by. Anytime. The rest will take care of itself.

My thoughts too. I would like to emphasize that I’m in a very good, drug induced, mood and have no immediate plans to do anything desperate. That being said…

If my SS and/or Medicare came to a halt I could last a couple months. Should such a thing come to pass my choices would be: Try to eek out my medications as long as possible, swallow enough pills to end it quickly and painlessly, or buy a bus ticket to DC and blow my brains all over the Capitol steps.

Even though my “preexisting condition” is work related I can’t get private insurance at any price. I spent ten years staying alive by sheer force of will, while going through every asset i owned aside from my cat and aquarium, before I qualified for Medicare and, since then, have probably enjoyed the best period of my life. I paid my dues in sweat and blood.

I like to quip that I take three kinds of medication. Those that prevent me from dying. Those that prevent me from killing myself. And those that prevent me from killing everyone else. If the GOoPers get their way I would be among the millions who wouldn’t survive.

The poor things don’t even have functional “logic buttons”. If the normal SaudiFAUX “News” viewer wandered next to a “logic button” they would simply self-destruct like the tape at the start of Mission Impossible.

The “Obama Has a Problem with White Women” was particularly egregious because, in fact it was that white women had a problem with Obama ( white women as a voting bloc whose socio-political interests have not been particularly championed or well defended by Obama).

The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion.

Why so much?

“To power an air conditioner at a remote outpost in land-locked Afghanistan, a gallon of fuel has to be shipped into Karachi, Pakistan, then driven 800 miles over 18 days to Afghanistan on roads that are sometimes little more than “improved goat trails,” Anderson says. “And you’ve got risks that are associated with moving the fuel almost every mile of the way.”

Apart from the described costs of the logistics, there’s also the fact that the US has done FUCK ALL in restoring the Iraqi infrastructure because the neocons calculated that ‘enfreedomed’ Iraqis would be too busy with candy and flowers to object to becoming the property of Adam Smith assholes from America.

Mideastern oil is shipped to a Mideastern depot. Then it’s shipped to a Mideastern port. Then it’s shipped to an American port.Then it’s shipped to a refinery. Then it’s shipped back to the American port, or a different American port. Then it’s shipped back to a port in the Mideast or South Asia. Then it’s shipped from the port to a depot. Then it’s shipped to the end user and everyone involved makes a profit every step of the way.

Mideastern oil is shipped to a Mideastern depot. Then it’s shipped to a Mideastern port. Then it’s shipped to an American port.Then it’s shipped to a refinery. Then it’s shipped back to an American depot. Then it’s shipped to the American port, or a different American port. Then it’s shipped back to a port in the Mideast or South Asia. Then it’s shipped from the port to a depot. Then it’s shipped to the end user and everyone involved makes a profit every step of the way. None of these people utilize green energy or even take measures to reduce waste.

Would it not make more sense to:

Ship the Mideastern oil, on diesel/solar/electric trains, to a local refinery. Use solar power for a substantial portion of the energy needed by said refinery. Ship the refined petroleum, using ships with auxilliary sails and solar panels, to local users and ports around the world. Then ship it to end users using trains that use diesel/solar/electric power.

“To power an air conditioner at a remote outpost in land-locked Afghanistan, a gallon of fuel has to be shipped into Karachi, Pakistan, then driven 800 miles over 18 days to Afghanistan on roads that are sometimes little more than “improved goat trails,”

A system that generates energy from rubbish is being sent by defence firm Qinetiq to the US army.
The PyTEC system heats mixed waste, releasing a gas that can be burned to produce five times more energy than is required to drive the system.
Qinetiq say that the system, already in use on British navy ship HMS Ocean, has been “containerised” for US army use.
The approach could see use in urban areas, reducing municipal waste volume by 95% while producing energy.

[SNIP]

The systems will be deployed to one of 55 “forward operating bases” in Iraq and Afghanistan – temporary outposts of 600 front-line soldiers that, until now, had no formal arrangements for waste disposal.

“That means they’re going to have to have trucks on the roads (to carry the waste), and that means people are going to be exposed to land mines and so on – and it increases the use of fossil fuels,” Mr McGlead told BBC News.

“By providing them with a self-contained waste management capability, we’re reducing their logistical footprint, reducing the number of body bags, and reducing their fossil fuel usage.”
.

Aw crap! The troll network has descended on my local paper’s story about Blagojevich. Funny… they don’t seem eager to talk about Craig, Ensign, Vitter and others. They also seem oblivious to the fact that “Blago’s” own party condemned him.

I took a look.
I actually do find it annoying when reporters don’t mention a politician’s party membership, whether R or D.–though the commenter who brought that up insists Dems are favored in that regard which is nonsense.

The identification or lack thereof appears to me to be very much an editorial style decision that varies from one new organization to the next. This ‘non-disclosure in this case is from AP.

Of course then there’s FOX and its “mistakes”, for which the guilty invisible staffers get soundly spanked with loofah’s (“in my mi-nnd!”)

Wine helps and they even have pills for that. Frankly, I’m amazed that I’m so peppy tonight. I’m whacked out on goofballs and have only slept about 4 hours since Saturday but I’m… enervated. I think I’ll go back and try to add my own little twist to the Media Matters threads I was locked out of.

The part that sucks is that I don’t dare drink along with the meds. I did ask if it’s safe to take my normal bedtime pills and was assured that I wouldn’t turn into a newt or stop breathing so I’m hopeful that the combination will put me out. If my tooth starts throbbing when i lie down, which has been a major issue, I’ll try, literally, a few drops of schnaps, which I may spit out, and hope it numbs me up enough to pass out.

Victory!!! I’ve been reinstated at Media Matters. No explanation but at least I can post there again. My guess is that I pissed off some trolls (the same ones I pissed off at the Minneapolis Star and Tribune?) and got voted off the island.

Speaking of MMfA: Ebven the FAUXhounds occasionally admit that their programming isn’t “factual”.

Chernin: “And then there’s the talk and opinion shows which no one ever pretends are news and factual. And Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity are clearly people on the right side of the spectrum but they are always presented as such.”

Except for Bildo Really’s “fair and balanced” Tourette’s, and his claims that Dr. Tiller performed abortions on demand at $5,000 a pop, and the ‘Paris Business Review” and his ‘Poklbody’ awards and then there’s Hannity and Cavuto and Beck of course and then nearly every damn guest and analyst has to lie about something in every appearance.

Opinion’s without facts to support them, opinions absent the facts that undermine those opinions are just noise and lying; And lo, Chernin is LYING!

I just love this story. I know that the FAUXhens will neither hear nor comprehend it but it is fun when they admit that they are full of shit.

Of course; that’s no comfort for George Tiller’s loved ones. Bill0 issued a fatwa with his repeated cries of “Tiller the baby killer” and “if you don’t stop him the blood is on your hands”. In a saner world? Bill0 would be sharing a cell with Roeder.

In summary, Bill was outraged at suggestions that his 28 segments over 4 years devoted to “Dr. Tiller the Baby Killer” encouraged the doctor’s murderer, even though Billdo constantly claims massive influence on all sorts of subjects and issues.
Billdo knows damned well that advertising works—he’s a major beneficiary of it—which is why mega corporations have mega advertising budgets and why the cost of presidential campaigns has reached $1billion.

The Dodgers and Chicago White Sox play at Glendale’s spring-training stadium Camelback Ranch Glendale, which opened in 2008 at 111th Avenue and Camelback Road.

As part of the bankruptcy, the Dodgers could ask for court approval to reject certain agreements, including with Glendale, said Valley bankruptcy attorney John Hebert, of Polsinelli Shughart. …

Damn. The Dodgers are in Chap. 11 and it “could ripple all the way to Glendale, where the team plays its annual spring-training games.”

Ouch. Wonder how long it’ll take Brewer et al to cough up the funds to save the Dodgers? And Glendale (a Phoenix suburb, home of the AZ Cardinals and Coyotes)? Maybe if they cut Medicaid. Again. Maybe then they can save the world of pro sports?

I really can’t wait until pro sports eats itself once and for all. Alladem. Everywhere. Go poof. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way to the poorhouse. Etc.

I can’t decide if today I have a bad attitude or an exceptionally good attitude, but I lean toward the latter. Definitely.

I can’t summon that much angst directed against sports in general. I enjoy listening to a Twins’ game while I surf at night and really enjoy football.

Here in Minnesota we are facing the loss of our beloved Vikings because no one wants to invest in a stadium. Here’s my take:

Stadiums are money machines. When it’s a football stadium it is only used by the team for a maximum of 12 days a year. Every other day of the year it could, theoretically, be used for another event. These events make money. I have no problem about using public bonding measures to finance a stadium so long as the public gets to keep the profit on their events while the sport’s team keeps the profits from their events. It seems pretty freakin’ simple and obvious to me.

My dad was a baker, had his own bakery. He bought it himself, never asked for taxpayer financing. He was open six days per week, 52 weeks of the year save for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

He never had to pay an employee $25 million per year, would have laughed at the concept.

Pro sports? No different than small town bakeries. They can build their own damn stadiums with their own owner’s cash. Or they can disappear for good.

If the Vikings have to leave MSP because no one will build them a new stadium, let ‘em go. I remember when they came. 1961 I think it was. Played in Bloomington where the Twins played, where the stands along the third base line move in to be parallel with the first base side, football in between. It worked. Fran Tarkenton, Joe Kapp, they remember. Then came the HHH Metrodome and the Vikes moved there. Now, that’s not good enough anymore.

Reminds me of when the Cardinals were looking for a new stadium to be built for them somewhere in the metro Phoenix area. But where? A radio talk show asked the question one morning, ‘where should the new (taxpayer-funded) stadium be built? Phoenix? Tempe? Mesa? Glendale? Somewhere else?

A caller made my day. He said, “How about San Antonio?”

I have no time for pro sports. None. I’d far rather my (involuntary) stadium x 2 and arena x 2 ‘contributions’ go toward schools and education. Pay a star teachers $25 million per year. Pay a star athlete the $25 K a starting teacher gets. Fair’s fair, after all.

I don’t have much contempt for the players. Their careers could end, and they could be crippled, in a split second. The owners are different and, since they are fabulously wealthy in order to join the club, I don’t want to enrich them with public funds. On the other hand, I have no objection to a community investing in a stadium that will return a profit to said community. The Metrodome paid off it’s bonds in just a few years. Since then; it has been making money for the Metropolitan Sports something or other (please forgive me. The drugs are taking over and muddling my thoughts.) but it would pay more if the community had made a better deal.

My point is that a good deal for the community would make a lot more profit than the bonds, loans, or other arrangements would cost up front. If (that’s a big “IF”) the arrangements are favorable I don’t see where a stadium is a worse investment than a freeway or bridge.

Some full disclosure here: I know Peter Chernin. My daughter and his son were good friends in high school and even dated a bit. and I always found Peter to be a sane, realistic and loyal guy. I haven’t seen him since 2003 and lots has changed since then but there’s reasons he is no longer at Fox when he was considered the heir apparent. I can see Chernin’s measured tone in his quotes.

I don’t know Mr. Chernin. That being said; I don’t think he’s guilty of the evil that Rupert, Roger, and their creatures have done. On the other hand, his position may have given him an opportunity to nip it in the bud at an earlier date. He was not a good Samaritan when it could have made a real difference. Now? The Fox horse has taken the bit between its teeth and continues to run flat-out.

“which no one ever pretends are news and factual.”…
If Chernin doesn’t know that O’Reilly, Cavutp, Hannity, Beck, Palin, Wallace, Fox and Friends are all serial liars, and that they ALL PRETEND to be factual, and that Bill Sammons directs his ‘talent’ to deliberately misinform and lie, then I am wrong in calling Chernin a liar; moron would be more accurate—-though it beggars belief that he could be so clueless, .

It used to be fun to make fun of Marion “Pat” Robertson. Now? Aside from his enormous evangelical empire he’s just sad. I don’t even know if many fundies really give a rip what he says. He’s a poor imitation compared to Oral Roberts or Jerry Fallwell. At least Fallwell was evil enough that he could generate some honest rage.

It is the most strongly worded I’ve seen from him yet on the Gaza flotilla.I saw another post this morning about Israel backing down on their threats of banning journalists for ten years, those who decide to cover this flotilla.

I just hate the stance our own country has taken on this. If people die this time around (again), our government will turn a blind eye and say it is justified. Again, read Juan Cole’s post.

Israel is what the US has been ( and still is) very close to becoming–a nation run by militaristic ideologues beholden to religious zealots for political power.
Carter and Clinton made an effort and also got lucky in reducing the threats to Israel’s existence from Arab states, but with a remarkable synergy with the Bush administration the powers that be in Israel have embraced an Orwellian construct of self-justifying permanent conflict with a vengeance.

Quite apart from that, I cannot appreciate ANY over-arching benefit Israel provides the US, even as an arms/MIC employment market ( The Israeli MIC competes with the US globally even as it is subsidized by the US). .

ip, I am in the process of learning Hebrew. There are a lot of sites out there which are not official Israeli policy but Israeli blogs, which show that the Israeli people crave peace as much as all of us do. I hope some day I’ll be able to read them.

If you happen to have HBO they are showing the documentary “Hot Coffee” right now. It’s about it’s about the lawsuit filed by the woman who spilled hot McDonald’s coffee on herself. It goes into the republican/corporate push for tort reform which was very successful under Bush 43. It goes into how the cap on lawsuits have affected some families, into how Karl Rove created the tort model in Texas, where pro-business laws were passed and pro-business Judges were elected. This model has been exported to other States. I am one of those who strongly believe that the republicans are truly evil, but this documentary just reaffirms my beliefs ten fold.

Yes I would agree, but the republicans used that one case to drive their agenda for tort reform. Hell, knowing the way those evil phuck’s operate, the woman was probably part of a Breitbart (before Breitbart) stunt, just to gain popularity among the sheople for tort reform????

You should watch the movie. I heard a lengthy interview with the filmmaker last Friday, and there is a ton that you (and the rest of us) did not know about that incident, and how the poor women was used, belittled and shamed by Karl Rove and his ilk as a step toward removing the public’s right for a real jury trial.

The spilled coffee? She had 3rd degrees burns over some huge quantity of her body, including her abdomen and her genitalia. There had been hundreds of cases previous to that in which McDonald’s had severely burned people because of the temperature they served their coffee.

All we ever heard was what a stupid lawsuit this was and how the system was out of control with hundreds of frivolous lawsuits like it — all courtesy of Karl Rove.

I would like your opinion on a project I am working on. Click on the link below and tell me what you think of what I have so far. Go ahead and try some of the links to see where they take you. I am trying to compile links for every state’s home page, how to contact their governors, their legislature’s home page (so you can look up bills or contact members), each state’s constitution, and a link to election boards (so you can look up third party candidates or information on how to run for office yourself.)

I seriously want to know what you have to say about it, especially suggestions on how to improve it. Don’t be shy, just say what needs to be fixed or changed or even added. (For example, I have some Contact the Governor links that go to the governor;s home page, and some that go to the governor’s contact form. Should I do both? I’ve also considered adding links to each legislature’s house, with contact information for them, too.) My goal is to provide a useful tool for more activism at the state level. Many of us are involved with national politics, but after my state’s recent battle or Marriage Equality, I thought it might be useful for people to be able to contact their state’s government.

I really would appreciate some feedback, and you are welcome to leave your comments on that page, rather than post them here. I’ll see them there, and it would be helpful to have the suggestions where I can see them. Also note that I got almost all the way through Kansas before stopping for the night. (I am able to do about seven or eight states each night before I go nuts. :) )

Wayne, wow just WOW. You put in a lot of work there and it is really useful to have one place to go where you don’t have to click yourself through hundreds of pages to get to pertinent information. And for imbeciles like me, who don’t know a thing about this all it’s incredibly useful Good job!

Actually, I just remarked tonight that I think she has had some “work.”
Her eyebrows are level now, and her “smile lines” are less noticeable.
False eyelashes, different hair color — I think she was anticipating all those appearances on camera and took advantage of one of those regular recesses in the House to see a surgeon.

Justin fan Payton Wall’s dream came true last week when she met the teen idol, the result of a favor from President Barack Obama who promised to facilitate an introduction to the pop star after receiving a 1,500-word email from the teen, whose father died on 9/11..

Obama received Payton’s letter the day after Osama Bin Laden had been killed. Moved by Payton’s personal story, Obama invited the teen, her mother, and sister to the Ground Zero ceremony in May..

When meeting Obama in person, Payton again inquired about meeting Justin, and the president said he would help..